You’ll Shout Whoopee!

By Travis Lee

I went back a few years in my swipe files to show you this example. It comes from long-time client David Loynd of Grand’s Garage in Escondido, CA. In fact, I think we met him at one of our first speaking engagements with 3D Mail over six years ago. He’s been using our items for a few years now and I finally get an opportunity to highlight him. He’s doing some good stuff.

First, a little background on the piece before we get into more advanced analysis. This is David’s second shot at this particular mailing list. David first mailed this list a couple months ago as part of his “cold birthday promotion.” David is able to get a list of people in his geographic area, who meet his demographics, whose birthday’s fall in a particular month. He then sends them a birthday gift, usually a free oil change to his shop. Every time he does one of these mailings he gets new clients in his shop.

But why stop at one shot when you know you have a responsive list? David realized this and decided to hit them up again a few months later with a new promotion and offer. After all, these are the exact clients he wants in his shop. The timing, for whatever reason the previous month, just may not have been right for the prospect. Whoopee CushionGo here to see a PDF version of David’s letter. You’ll notice he used our Whoopee Cushion. He did a lot of good things here. He offered a relevant free gift with response and includes a picture (which was detailed much more on the buck slip he included in his original mailer, which I did not recreate here). He has good ‘reason why’ copy to answer the client’s question, “Why am I getting this thing in the mail?” His reason why copy is easy to follow and helps progress the sale. He uses an expiration date. He specifically spells out the services given away for free, so nothing is left to assumption or interpretation. He includes many other details we teach in these tips.

Two things I certainly would have added are testimonials (especially given this is to a cold prospect list), and map with the location and directions to his shop.

He sent out 200 pieces and got 3 responses. While you may be thinking to yourself, “big deal,” it may be a big deal once we dive a little deeper into the actual meaning of those results.

Having worked with many auto repair shop owners using 3D Mail, I’ve become pretty familiar with the industry. I was amazed at the Lifetime Customer Value (LCV) of a single good client when I first started working with them. The number ranged from a few thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the relationship, to $20,000 and higher. This brings us to the great conversation of the number you need to know in order to make your marketing a success.

I’m NOT talking about the numbers you get from your accountant each month. I’m talking about the MARKETING NUMBERS you need to know in order to really know if your marketing is working.

First is LCV. This should be fairly obvious, but this is the total amount of dollars brought in from a certain client. It can be gross, or net. I personally like to track both. Just because you have gross dollars, doesn’t mean you have net. The LCV ultimately controls your decisions about how much to invest I obtaining your customers. Knowing this number also helps you know the costs of losing a customer and determine what you are willing to invest to keep them.

This is also a lesson in doing lots of things simultaneously and as systematically as possible. David’s new birthday mailers are systematic; they start the first of every month, without fail. If this new step proves to be a winner, even if just mildly, he needs to systematize it as soon a possible so every month he can count on at least three new clients in the door from this promotion.

The next two important numbers are Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Cost Per Sale (CPS), but you’ll need to wait until later in the week to learn about those. Blog Readers Only Special You didn’t think I’d highlight a great letter from one of our clients and not have a promotion for it, right? Right now the Whoopee Cushion is 10% off until Feb. 22, 2013 at 5 PM PST. Here are just a few headlines we’ve come up with for you to use. There are more listed on our website at this link: “Whoopee! Get Your Car Ready for Summer Travel Right Now and SAVE”

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